Eureka council to vote on dispensary moratorium; marijuana dispensary ban would allow city time to study potential amendments

The Eureka City Council is poised to approve a 45-day moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries and cultivation facilities Tuesday in order to allow time for the city to decide how to proceed in the face of federal threats.

At its last meeting, the council asked city staff to put together a proposed moratorium ordinance, with members saying the city needs more time to study how best to amend its medical marijuana land use ordinance to shield the city from federal scrutiny.

Passed in August of 2010, and modified in March, the city's ordinance governing the permitting of medical marijuana cultivation and distribution facilities came back into question after the city sought an opinion on its legality from the U.S. Attorney's Office and received a sternly written letter in response.

"The department is concerned about the city of Eureka's creation of a licensing scheme that permits large-scale industrial marijuana cultivation, processing and distribution, as it authorizes conduct contrary to federal law and threatens the federal government's efforts to regulate ... controlled substances," U.S. Northern District Attorney Melinda Haag wrote. "If the city of Eureka were to proceed, this office would consider injunctive actions, civil fines, criminal prosecution and the forfeiture of any property used to facilitate a violation of (the Controlled Substances Act)."

At their last meeting, members of the City Council said they worried the letter could mean federal prosecutions of city staff, and possibly even council members, for permitting the facilities. The council decided it needed more time to determine the best path forward on the dispensary issue and asked staff to draft the moratorium with the idea of giving the new city attorney, Cydny Day-Wilson, a chance to weigh in on the issue. Because Day-Wilson's first day with the city is Nov. 1, it seems probable the council will look to extend the moratorium past the 45-day mark.

Councilwoman Melinda Ciarabellini said Friday that she wants to move forward on the issue, but at the same time thinks it's important to exercise caution and protect city employees.

"I'm not interested in this lingering on, that's for sure," she said. "I want to get it resolved, but I want to do it right."

The council had previously given its approval for three different groups to submit conditional use permit applications to open dispensaries within the city. Of those, only one, the Humboldt Wellness Center, is in the midst of the application process.

The center is looking to open a 6,600-foot dispensary, with on-site cultivation, in the 200 block of Forth Street to serve about 2,000 patients. However, City Manager David Tyson said the center's application to the city was incomplete as submitted and was returned for additional information.

City staff sought the opinion from the U.S. Attorney's Office after learning that the city of Chico had received a letter threatening federal action after its council approved the permitting of two 10,000-foot marijuana cultivation facilities. Eureka Community Development Director Rob Wall said he was asked to contact Haag's office for an opinion because Eureka's ordinance did not include size limits for growing operations.

A number of people who addressed the council at its last meeting urged the city to show courage and stand up for state's and patients' rights, with one saying the federal government has been sending threatening marijuana-related letters for 15 years without any real action.

Prior to that meeting, local attorney and medical marijuana activist Greg Allen said the city must have known what response it was going to get from the federal government when it asked the U.S. Attorney's Office to weigh in on an ordinance that everyone should have known runs counter to federal law, which classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 controlled substance.

"What's the U.S. Attorney's Office going to say?" he asked. "Frankly, that's an automatic. ... It's brutally clear to me that that letter was sent to the U.S. attorney with the expectation of getting back the response they got."